Story

After five films, you'd understand why fans would be concerned. We've seen Uncle Ben. We've watched Green Goblin a bunch of times before. We all know about the "bit by radioactive spider" story. And it looked like Marvel knew very well we did.

They didn't spoon-feed us the whole spider-man backstory in the film. Instead, of doing "here's spider-man vs another dispensable evil dude!", Homecoming explored a more human aspect to being spider-man. The responsibilities, consequences, and of the course the plus sides of having superhuman strength are portrayed quite realistically in this film.

Peter's main goal in the movie is to prove himself worthy of becoming an Avenger, to none other than Mr.Stark. But, he's still a kid, and Tony prefers if he sticks to being a superhero of the streets. Y'know judging from the trailers and posters, I was worried the movie would be an Iron-Man 3.5, but they were smart in how they used Downey Jr. They made you feel like Peter and Tony do really exist in the same world. And that's something the previous films definitely didn't have.

this scene never even showed up in the actual movie. It was just trailer fodder for us hungry Marvel fans.

Unfortunately, the movie does try too hard sometimes to say "Hey, Spidey's in the MCU (*marvel cinematic universe) now! I mean Thor, Hulk, and a lot of avengers get name-dropped so much in the film, even up till the end. I understand they wanna make sure the audience gets the message, but I would've preferred them to be more subtle y'know. i.e. show, not tell.

Cept for Capt.

Behind all this, we have Adrian Toomes, (played by Michael Keaton), a man who collects all the scraps of war from all the Avengers' Battles. Yes we finally get to see who cleans up the mess the Avengers make after every epic battle. Tony has created a department called Damage Control who replaces Keaton's clean-up crew.

something about fur leather jackets make you look so evil. (and cool)

So Peter gets tangled in Toomes's affairs, and does some good ol' fashioned meddling. Tony doesn't approve of this, and tells him to lay low. But Pete being Pete, goes for it anyway, and eventually gets himself into one event that forces him to hand-over his Spidey suit back to Tony. 

The writers did an incredible job at developing Tony's character this time around. Instead of just making a few quips and witty remarks, he actually cares for Peter, and wants him to realise that the suit doesn't make the man, the man makes the suit. But of course, Tony being Tony still has his fair share of quips to chuck at everyone. 

In a twist of events, Peter finds out that Toomes, is actually his crush's father. And to add salt to the wound, Toomes figures out that Peter is Spider-man. There's a pretty scary scene where Toomes talks to Peter alone in the car, warning him that he will kill him and everyone he loves should he continue to mess with his plans. 

But for the greater good, Peter risks his life and confronts Toomes in his lair. Oh yeah, Pete does all this in his homemade Spider-man suit, AKA a hoodie, sweat pants, and a mask with googles. It's hilarious how Peter's basically wearing normal clothes to fight this super powerful flying guy, who could easily tear him to shreds. 

What makes Toomes an actually good Marvel villain, is that he's not wearing a big neon sign that says "I AM EVIL, HATE ME". His motives are actually understandable...well...for the most part. He explains to Peter how the people higher than them don't care for normal folk like them, and offers him one last chance to back-off. But Peter sees through Toomes's motives. His knack for collecting and making deadly weapons wasn't just to protect his family anymore. It was an obsession. I still think he's a dummy for not taking all those cool Avengers gear on the plane. 

Long story short, Toomes beats Peter. What follows is this heartbreaking scene of a bloodied Peter, crushed under a colossal pile of concrete, metal, and debris. This scene to me, is what makes this movie prominent from the others. In Tobey Maguire's Spider-man, he loses a lot of people dear to him. The same goes for Andrew Garfield's movies as well. In those movies, Spider-man beat the bad guys, and Peter Parker suffers.

But here, we see this whole other side of Spider-man. This scene makes us realise one thing. Underneath the suit, the powers, the fame, the confidence. Spider-man is just a kid. A 15-year-old kid who took on more than he could chew. Peter desperately screams for help throughout this whole scene. "Anyone please, just help me!". And you don't see him as Spider-man anymore. Just a poor, helpless kid crying, begging for anyone to help him. Oh yeah, Tom Holland's "pre-manhood" voice really helped bring this scene to life too.

Not gonna go over the ending, but you can probably guess what happens. So I give props to the writers, for managing to give us a Spider-man story different from the others. 

Thwip! Pew! Snip!

Wonder if he went back for his school clothes

You gotta admit. This was sick.

"OK Donald Glover, act like you haven't slept and showered for a week"

• The Crush
• The Girl who cares but doesn't
• The Nerds
• The Softies
• The Jock

Oh they were smart in making Flash Thompson this scrawny kid who's just a jerk, instead of a hulking bully. Ned's character was well-written, as far as side characters go. OH I can't believe they casted Donald Glover out of all the actors, to play the Prowler. His performance was so one-dimensional....but man it worked. So lifeless, yet full of life. 

THE VULTURE. I'm sorry if I used "Toomes" too much in this review, but now...IT'S ALL ABOUT THE VULTURE MAN. His design is 3 things:

It's cool

It's smart

And it makes sense.

All he is, is just a guy in a worn-out fur leather jacket, who built himself a helmet, and a super sweet set of wings. His helmet is basically a Jet Pilot helmet, modding with menacing green eyes. The wings look very drone-inspired, and has this "some guy really built this" look. You can see each part, being screwed and attached together, as opposed to Iron-Man's suits, that can pretty much fold in any way. 

Soundtrack

Michael Giacchino. He composed some amazing and memorable tracks before like Pixar's UP's Married Life, the main theme of Ratatouille, and the main theme from Doctor Strange. So how did he fair in Homecoming? 

First of all we get an amazing remastered version of the classic Spider-man theme, but only for the intro of the movie. Y'know: Spiderman! Spiderman! Does whatever a Spider can! He gave Tom Holland's Spider-man a different kind of theme compared to other Marvel heroes. Homecoming Suite is a track that kinda makes you feel the weight of being a hero. It also has this cheeky, childish flow to it all, like you're trying to go for something big, that you're not supposed to. But it gets pretty awesome the further you listen. 

You can take a listen here.

Marvel has really gotten better at making memorable themes for their movies this time around. I mean if I told you to hum something from Captain America or Thor, most of us wouldn't be able to. But I could hum Doctor Strange's theme, or GOTG's theme just fine.

Action themes like Drag Racing/An Old Van Rundown (1 minute into the track) have that classic feel to it, like maybe something from Spy-Kids. Oh yeah if you didn't know, composers often mix one theme into another theme, to fit the scenes. Have a listen to it here.

For example, when the hero is winning, a variation of his theme plays in the background, sometimes obvious, sometimes really subtle. But when the villain gets the upper hand, the theme plays a bit of his theme instead. Even though the whole track is a completely different track.

In the Homecoming Suite, you can listen to 2:40 onwards to hear Vulture's theme in Spider-man's theme. This is an obvious one, but for a subtle example, listen to Drag Racing/An Old Van Rundown

at 2:00 onwards.You can hear bits of Spidey's theme, so this was probably during a scene where Spider-man did something successfully. 

THE VULTURE'S THEME is probably one of the best Marvel Villain themes. It's menacing, it's powerful, it feels like something is coming to grab you in the middle of the night. Goes well with Keaton's presence in the film. Listen to a bit here.

The Verdict